What next?
A total-compensation figure is the start of the decision. These turn it into what actually reaches you.
What your result means
True annual value is what an offer is worth in a steady year: base, the bonus you actually expect, one year of equity, the employer’s pension contribution and the cash value of benefits, less what commuting costs you. A signing bonus is left out of it and reported separately, because a one-off payment flatters a weak offer for as long as you keep counting it. Driving the gap names the single component doing most of the work — it is frequently equity or pension rather than the base salary people negotiate hardest on.
Why this one is different
Offers are compared on true annual value, not base salary: pension, bonus, sign-on, equity, benefits, commute and regional cost are all folded in, and a per-line breakdown shows which of them is actually driving the difference between two or three offers.
Base pay is the number you compare; it is rarely the number that decides
Two offers five thousand apart on base can be level once one of them adds three per cent more pension, a real bonus and a commute that costs nothing. The components move independently, and only one of them is on the front page of the offer letter.
This tool exists to make the other components visible at the same scale as the salary. It does not tell you which job to take — it tells you what the money difference actually is, so you can weigh it against everything a spreadsheet cannot price.
How it works
Each offer is reduced to one annual figure. The bonus is a percentage of base. Equity is the whole grant divided evenly across the vesting years, at today’s share price with no growth assumed. Employer pension is a percentage of base and counts as straight cash, because an employer contribution is not taxed as income in the first place. Benefits are whatever you judge the cash value to be, and the commute is subtracted. If you entered a cost-of-living difference, the total is divided by it, which restates the offer in the money of the place you live now. The two totals are then compared, and the largest single component difference between the top two is reported as the driver.
How to use this calculator
- Name each offer so the result is readable — "current job" and "the new one" beats "Offer 1".
- Enter the base salary and the bonus you actually expect, not the maximum on the offer letter. If the bonus has never paid out in full, do not enter the full number.
- Add the total equity grant and how many years it vests over. The tool divides it evenly and assumes the share price does not move.
- Put in the employer pension percentage — this is the component people most often leave out, and it is worth thousands.
- Estimate the annual commute and relocation cost. Season ticket, fuel, parking, and the flights home if you are moving.
- If one job means moving, set the cost-of-living difference against where you live now. The tool has no built-in city data and will not guess one for you — see the note below on where to get a figure.
- Add a third offer only if you have one. Two is the normal case.
Formula
Everything is annual and before tax. The cost-of-living divisor restates an offer in the money of your current location: a 12% more expensive city divides by 1.12, so the package has to be 12% bigger just to stand still. Signing bonus sits outside the annual figure and appears only in the first-year line.
Example calculation
A £55,000 job with a 10% bonus, 5% pension, £1,200 of benefits and a £2,400 commute, against a £62,000 offer with a 5% bonus, a £40,000 grant over four years, 3% pension, £600 of benefits, a £3,800 commute and a 12% more expensive city:
New, before the adjustment: 62,000 + 3,100 + 10,000 + 1,860 + 600 − 3,800 = £73,760
New, in your current city’s money: 73,760 ÷ 1.12 = £65,857
The new offer is ahead by £3,807 a year, about 6.1%
Driving it: equity, worth £8,929 more a year after the adjustment — the base salary difference is only £357 once the city is priced in
First year, with the £5,000 signing bonus: £70,321
Frequently asked questions
Why is there no built-in cost-of-living data for UK cities?＋
Because there is no primary source good enough to publish. The only official series is the ONS’s relative regional consumer price levels, which covers regions rather than cities, was last calculated on 2016 data with no scheduled update, and explicitly excludes housing — the very thing that makes one city more expensive than another. Crowdsourced indices exist but are not primary sources. Rather than assert a number this site cannot stand behind, the field is yours to fill in. Compare rents for the same flat on a property portal, add the difference in council tax and transport, and express it as a percentage of your current spending.
Should I trust the equity figure?＋
Treat it as the least reliable line on the page. It assumes the share price does not move, which it certainly will, and for a private company the "value" is a paper number until there is a liquidity event. The tool divides the grant evenly across the vesting years, which is the conservative reading; real vesting schedules often have a one-year cliff, so year one may deliver nothing. If the equity is what makes an offer win, discount it and see whether the offer still wins.
Why is the result before tax?＋
So the tool is usable outside the UK, and so it does not quietly become a second, unmaintained tax engine. Tax also changes the gap less than people expect when both offers sit in the same country and the same broad band. If you want the take-home figure, run each total through the salary calculator, which is maintained against current bands and thresholds.
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Assumptions & limitations
Every figure here comes from a simplified model. Keep these limits in mind when reading your result:
- All figures are annual and before tax, so the comparison holds in any country. Take-home depends on your band, region and pension arrangement — use the salary calculator for that.
- There is no built-in cost-of-living dataset. The adjustment is a number you supply, and the result is only as good as it is.
- Equity is straight-line at today’s price: the grant divided by the vesting years, with no growth, no cliff and no discount for illiquidity. Stock options with a strike price are not modelled at all.
- The employer pension contribution is counted as cash at face value, which is correct — it is not taxed as income. Your own contributions are deliberately not modelled, because the relief depends on your band and scheme.
- The bonus is whatever percentage you enter. A "target" bonus that has never paid in full is worth less than the offer letter says.
- Benefits are valued at whatever cash figure you enter. Some, like private medical cover, are taxable benefits in kind, which this tool does not adjust for.
- Nothing here prices the things that actually make people leave jobs: the work, the manager, the hours, the security of the employer and whether you can do the job well.